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Monday, August 11, 2008

T. Boone Pickens Update

T. Boone was on McNeil/Lehrer tonight, and provided an additional kernel of his energy plan. You will recall that he plans replacing natural gas's place in producing America's electricity (about 23-26%) with wind power over a period of 10 years. He would apply the natural gas to powering transportation, since we already have the technology to do that.

One objection to applying natural gas to transportation is that there is no national network of "natural gas stations", and it would be too costly to build one. T. Boone answered that objection tonight by saying, essentially, that we should convert only the trucking industry to natural gas. That seems to make some sense, and would require fewer stations.

Currently Reading

In Defense of a Liberal Education, by Fareed Zakaria. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, the damn Kindle edition doesn't include the publication date.

"The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has pointed to three ideas associated with the humanities that have positively shaped the world. First, he notes the philosopher Isaiah Berlin's warning that the belief in a single, all-encompassing truth inevitably produces blind arrogance, possibly leading to dangerous consequences. Second, he highlights John Rawls's contribution to political thought: that the most just society would be the one you would choose if you did not know how rich or poor or how talented or untalented you were when born into it. ... Lastly, Kristof highlights the work of Peter Singer, who has brought the treatment of animals and the pain that human beings often needlessly cause them to the fore of our moral consciousness."